Super Bowl 2012: Why Giants Should Be Favorites Next Season

The last time a team repeated as Super Bowl champions was in 2004 and 2005.

In this era of salary cap football, winning consecutive Super Bowls is an extremely difficult feat to accomplish—which is why it is now done so rarely in comparison to the 1970s. In fact, only four teams have been able to repeat as champs since 1981.

The Giants will be the next to take on this challenge.

Big Blue has made the playoffs only once after winning the previous year's Super Bowl. Fortunately, that one time was recently in 2008. The Giants were actually damn good that year and were looking more and more like a repeat contender before losing three of their final four games and ultimately losing to the Eagles in the divisional round of the playoffs.

They were the No. 1 seed in the NFC that year.

Next year they should be treated as favorites for a couple of reasons, but chief among them is simply because they have Eli Manning under center.

Balance

The Giants will make sure their offense is more balanced next season. They have an elite passing attack and will have to pay, at the very least, Mario Manningham and likely Victor Cruz.

But Jerry Reese's prime objective will be to bring balance to the Giants offense next season.

Eli is great, but he can be even better if the Giants force teams to honor their running game.

Experience 

This team now has a number of key players with a lot of experience in big games. The Giants can play anywhere—dirt, rocks, gravel, turf, grass or sandlot—and it won't bother them.

They're talented enough to win on the road or defend home turf.

They have a quarterback in the prime of his career. 

Coaching

Tom Coughlin still has a few years left in him. The oldest coach to ever win a Super Bowl isn't going to ride into the sunset just yet and with the way everything played out this year it would be surprising if he doesn't add a few more veteran players looking for a shot at a ring.

This Giants team can rely heavily on the leadership from the top down.